The ShangriLa Spa
by Pchefbeth
Summary: In response to the many questions following the story- Shipped Apart. I mentioned a story where Zane locks Jo in a massage room at the Shangri-La Spa in order to get her to talk to him. The story didn't exist…until now.
1. Chapter 1

_In response to the many questions following the story- Shipped Apart. I mentioned a story where Zane locks Jo in a massage room at the Shangri-La Spa in order to get her to talk to him. The story didn't exist…until now._

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* * *

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**The Shangri-La Spa**

**Chapter 1**

Zane jogged past the intersection looking left and then right before he continued to run onto Main Street. There was no sign of her yet.

He ran towards Café Diem, and slightly winded opened the front door. Breathing a little heavier than normal, he grabbed the table just inside the door and gestured towards Vincent. "2 Vinspresso' s, please."

Vincent leaned against the counter and looked over at him, taking in his slightly disheveled workout clothes. "Out for a little early morning run," he asked wryly.

"The early bird gets the worm," Zane replied with a smirk.

Vincent shook his head as he began to make the ordered coffee. "How long are you going to keep this up," he asked him.

"Well that depends," Zane hedged. "What's the pool up to these days?

"Longest odds we've seen in a while," Vincent told him unashamedly as he walked the two large cups of his vinspresso to the table. "There you go, one black and one Jo special. Not that it's going to help," he muttered under his breath.

Zane ignored him, and took a small sip of the frothy coffee bomb and bit back a whimpering sigh. He hadn't had to run this much in ages, and certainly never after a girl. They usually were the ones running to him.

"If you don't mind me asking," Vincent said, interrupting his train of thought, "why are you setting your sights on Jo. Won't Zoe have something to say about that?"

Zane took another sip of coffee as he studied Vincent's face. He saw quickly that he'd only be confirming what Vincent already knew and decided to throw him a bone.

"Zoe's a nice kid, but it was never a serious thing. She knew that. Odds are she'll be seeing someone her own age by the weeks end," Zane said grinning. "It was fun to mess with Carter though."

Vincent just rolled his eyes and went back to his espresso machine.

Zane caught a glimpse of Jo's profile as she walked past the café windows and he sat upright in his seat. _Showtime_, he thought to himself.

The door jingled as she walked in and headed straight for the counter, and as he had suspected missed seeing him in her initial café wide scan.

"Morning Vincent," she said quickly, "can I get a coffee to go- I'm in kind of a hurry this morning." Vincent didn't answer, merely gave her a pained expression and looked over her shoulder, and she froze as it clicked.

"Morning Jo-jo," Zane said as she turned to face him, her expression blank, but dread building in the pit of her stomach. "I lost sight of you back on Neptune, but figured that you would be heading this way soon enough."

"What do you want," Jo asked wearily.

"You're always in such a hurry these days- a guy can hardly get a chance to talk to you for five minutes." He stood and handed her the cup of coffee gesturing to the table. "Now you have a few minutes so we can talk."

"I need to get to work," Jo muttered and turned to leave.

Zane leaned in closer and whispered, "The Jo Lupo that I know would have never run away."

When she made no further move to leave, Zane walked around until he faced her. "Five minutes," he said. "We need to talk Jo."

Something in the way that he stood in front of her staring her down reminded her of her Zane and she relented. Five minutes she muttered and turned on her heel and walked back to the table.

Zane followed and sat slowly as if not believing that she wouldn't try to run again.

Vincent came over before either of them could speak with a plate of fresh pastries and left them on the table. He turned and walked away muttering to himself about changing those odds.

Zane smiled at the departing chef and picked up a pastry, gesturing it towards Jo. "You must be hungry," he said when she didn't reach for one herself. "For the past two weeks, all you've been doing is running. So are you training for a marathon, or has avoiding me become a full time occupation?"

Jo opened her mouth to answer, but Vincent walked past again with a fresh pot of coffee and she had to wait until he passed by. She started again, her voice low. This isn't the place to discuss this, she said.

No it isn't Zane countered, but since you won't talk to me at the office, you avoid me when you're out in public and I can't get near you at Carter's house, I had to resort to alternative measures.

When Jo said nothing he leaned forward. "Jo, you need to tell me what's going on so that we can deal with it. Trust me a little," he urged.

Jo looked up at him, her hazel eyes assessing him. Emotions were plainly visible in her normally guarded face.

Breaking eye contact she looked back down at her coffee cup. "I can't tell you anything, because there's nothing to tell. I was hallucinating and I'm better now, end of story."

"You know that's bull," he said quietly, but Jo didn't look up at him again. "Hallucinations don't begin to explain half of what I've been seeing. My grandmothers ring, you suddenly calling me Zane instead of Donovan, You then start calling the Head of GD Fargo instead of your usual Dr. Fargo or Douglas. I call him that to needle him, but suddenly you, Carter, Dr. Blake and even Henry are doing it. You're protecting this guy Grant," he continued, "who has now conveniently left Eureka, even though I know he's bogus. Then there's the little things," he said when she was still silent. He reached out and put his hand on her arm. Jo's eyes watched as he caressed her arm with his thumb. He waited a beat, and then said, "The Jo Lupo that I know would have told me to get my hands off of her."

"Get your hands off me," Jo said quietly.

He shook his head, causing her to glance up at him. "No, No," he said with a grin. "She would have done it while pinning the offending hand behind my back and shoving my body against the nearest flat surface all the while telling me to dream on." He smiled wider, "Hell, chances are I'd have done it just to get a reaction."

He leaned closer to her so as not to be overheard. "The Jo Lupo that I know sure as hell would never have kissed me back the way that you did. Like it was familiar."

Jo looked away as he mentioned the kiss. "It was a mistake." She said trying to quell the emotion in her voice.

"Then why can't I stop thinking about it," he asked her softly, moving his hand back to her arm once more, but she withdrew it from the table.

"You need to tell me-" he began but she cut him off.

"I don't _need_ to tell you anything," she said temper rising. "For the last time, there's nothing going on," and standing quickly she walked out of the café.

Zane watched her walk past the window again and leaned back in his chair trying to suppress the urge to chase after her again. She was right about one thing; Café Diem was way too public. But aside from ambushing her on her way to work and kidnapping her he was becoming frustrated. He bit out a sigh and rubbed his hands through his hair before taking another sip of his quickly cooling coffee. No, that wasn't it, he admitted to himself. He enjoyed a good puzzle and this one had engaged him on every level. He was pretty sure that he knew what had happened, but the how and the why were what was really sparking his curiosity. He picked up his half eaten Danish and took a large bite. As he chewed he wondered what he was like in the other timeline. He polished off the rest of his Danish as Vincent came back over.

"Jo didn't eat anything again," he said perplexed, but these were her favorites he said looking down at the still full plate of pastries.

"Guess she's lost her appetite," Zane said.

"She's been off her normal eating schedule for weeks now," Vincent said pointedly looking at Zane, "and she's not sleeping."

When Zane looked back up at him quickly, he continued. "Oh please," he said, "anyone with eyes can see that." He stared off absently out the window in the direction that Jo had been walking. "I was so sure that she was going to rip your arm off this morning..." he trailed off looking perplexed.

Zane half choked on the sip of coffee that he'd been drinking. He cleared his throat quickly and countered. "She's just really down about her house. I was just trying to offer my sympathies," he said with a smile.

"Your sympathies," Vincent mocked, "Oh please, cause that's the reason that you're chasing her all over town."

Zane's easy smile faltered. "Something like that," he said slowly as he stood.

"Those are really long odds," Vincent said still watching him.

Zane let out a quick laugh, his smile back in place. "Never underestimate the underdog," he told Vincent with a wave. As he walked out the door he called out over his shoulder, "Thanks for the coffee."

Vincent watched him leave musing all the while. '_Jo not eating, not kicking Zane when she had the chance. Maybe I should put $20 on the bet,'_ and humming to himself he returned to his kitchen to create the culinary masterpiece that would be lunch.

Zane walked down the street in the direction of his apartment. The problem of how to get Jo alone to talk to him was almost as big as what he would say to her when he managed to do it. As always when he was alone and thinking of her his thoughts returned to that kiss. He'd never dreamed that she would have responded like that. Actually he thought, he'd been dreaming about her responding to him like that for ages. But wanting something to happen and having it actually happen was mind boggling even for someone as smart as him.

He walked up the two flights of stairs to his apartment and once inside threw his coffee cup in the recycler in the kitchen and sat on the couch and kicked off his sneakers. He looked around his apartment. It wasn't half bad, anything was better than prison. When the DOD had offered him Parole in Eureka, he'd jumped at it, thinking that he was getting off easy. Unfortunately word of his impending arrival and his reputation had preceded him and it hadn't made it easy to get settled and fit in. Then it was just his luck that the first girl that caught his eye was in law enforcement, and so focused on her career that she was unwilling to give him the time of day. So he'd embraced his bad boy rep as much as possible, and until recently it really hadn't bothered him. He kept himself just shy of doing anything truly major that might get his parole revoked, but he never was really interested in making a place for himself in Eureka. He was just passing the time. But the thought had surfaced in recent weeks and it kept nagging him. If Jo was as he suspected, from an alternate time line, that ring meant that in some other universe he'd not only been just as attracted to Jo, but that he'd found some way to make her date him. There was no other way that she would have gotten that ring unless he'd proposed. He shook his head again at the thought. Him- tied down to one girl for the rest of his life…willingly. He must have really been different where ever Jo was really from. It was those little things that made him itch to know. He blamed it on the scientist in himself, but wouldn't anyone want to know? What changes had occurred. How was he different? How did the ripple effects through the multi-verse change the world around them. How far would those ripples go? He simply had to know more.

He flicked on his TV screen and switched over to the computer input and picked up his wireless keyboard and typed in his password. With a few keystrokes he hacked into the GD System and opened a screen to view Lupo's daily schedule. He'd been forced to hack in last week when he'd been unable to track her down. He noted that she had a morning staff meeting with her team, then a lunch break with Allison followed by a team building session with Fargo. As he studied the schedule a new appointment opened on the calendar. Jo had just confirmed an appointment at the Shangri-La spa for a massage before her team building session that afternoon.

Zane grinned as a devious plot began to form in his mind at how he could creatively corner Lupo. She'd be spitting mad, but if he timed it right she'd be stuck with him for an entire hour. His head already spinning with possibilities as he outlined his next move, he headed towards the bathroom to take a shower and to plan. If nothing else he would make sure that Jo learned that the Zane in this universe never gave up.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Shangri-La Spa**

**Chapter 2**

Jo ended her weekly staff meeting and waited as everyone stood up and filed out of the room. She watched the faces of those leaving and noted, as she had expected that many of the more senior members of the team were unhappy with the new changes that she had made to the rotation. She let a little sigh as she began to reorganize the notes on her desk from the meeting. As much as she enjoyed leading her own team, it was these unexpected complications that prevented her from really enjoying her new role. As the last person left her office she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a brief minute. She was so tired. Between the demands of the job that were endless, the bickering among the staff and the changes that she needed to implement for morale boosting that she simply didn't have the heart for, she never seemed to get a minute to relax.

She reached absently for the chain on her neck, but the ring wasn't there. She'd become so accustomed to its weight that she'd panicked the first time that she'd forgotten that she'd given it back to Zane…or hurled it at him, however you looked at it. Its absence was part of why she was feeling so lousy. She'd been forced to evade Zane as he repeatedly tried to corner her into giving him answers to questions that she couldn't even begin to fathom how she could answer. He had upped his game and she was now succeeding less and less. He was more like her-Zane that way; when confronted with a problem he never quit until he had an answer.

Today's incident was still running through her mind. She kept seeing glimpses of her-Zane and it stopped her in her tracks when this-Zane did something out of character. Like when he had touched her arm, and spoken about that kiss. She'd been caught totally off guard. He'd admitted that he'd been thinking about it too, and she didn't know how to deal with it emotionally, much less respond. She'd watched Henry put in such an effort to become Grace's "Henry", but she didn't hold out any hope of the same thing happening to her.

Her phone beeped interrupting her thoughts and she picked it up without even looking at the incoming number. "Lupo," she answered briskly.

"Hey Jo-jo, miss me yet?" Zane asked through the phone.

"Zane," she answered with a sigh, "now isn't a good time."

"You're right," he quickly agreed. "I'm sorry."

Jo froze at the unexpected apology in his voice. "I'm sorry about the ambush this morning. You were right, Café Diem wasn't the right place. I was just hoping that you'd be willing to talk this time.

Jo leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "It's not that I don't want to," she began.

"But you can't," he finished for her.

"I'm sorry," she said simply.

"I'm not going to give up," he warned her.

"You have to. Just…forget anything was ever said or done," she implored.

"No can do Jo. I'll catch _you_, later," he said before he ended the call.

Jo stared down at the phone in her hand for a long minute, wishing that his promise wouldn't make her heart beat faster.

* * *

Later that morning

Jo walked into the GD cafeteria and scanned the nearby cluster of tables for Allison. The food was a far cry from Café Diem, but they had soups, sandwiches and salads of a decent enough variety when you didn't have enough time to get back into town for lunch. Spotting her friend at a table by the window she moved to join her.

A tall figure momentarily crossed her path causing her to stop in her tracks; it was Zane, with a sandwich and apple in hand. He paused briefly in his tracks, gave her a mischievous grin, and then began walking towards the exit heading back towards his lab.

Jo sighed and continued towards Allison's table. As she sat Allison was watching her closely. She like many others in the cafeteria had seen the momentary pause. Allison was the only one who hadn't been expecting some sort of shouting match. "Zane trouble," Allison asked quietly as Jo was silent.

Jo attempted to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Yeah. He'll give up eventually, for right now he just enjoys bothering me."

Allison quickly assessed the not so well concealed smudges under her eyes and asked gently, "How are you feeling?"

"Hungry," Jo said attempting to sound bright and cheerful. "What's good at the slop-house today?"

Taking the hint Allison turned the conversation away from the problem at hand. As they got up and each got a salad from the line she told Jo about Kevin's latest drama at school and Jenna's new words that she'd been gurgling at Carter. Allison watched Jo halfheartedly pick at her salad and make little to no attempt to break into the conversation.

"Carter called a little while ago," Allison said while finishing her salad. "Zoe got back to school this morning."

Jo nodded, and asked almost on autopilot. "Did she have a good flight?"

Allison nodded. "He said that she sounded excited to be back. Her classes start next week and she told me that she's anxious to get into a few of her health and biology classes."

"That's good," Jo said as she attempted to smile.

"She missed you the other night at dinner," Allison said gently.

"I know," Jo said as she sighed deeply. "I just…I've been so busy you know? This job is really crazy sometimes and Fargo is a taskmaster, who knew," she said as she smiled weakly.

"Jo, talk to me," Allison urged.

"It's just; I couldn't be at dinner the other night, because I didn't think that I could stand to be in the same room with her and Zane."

"Zane didn't come to dinner," Allison corrected.

Jo looked up at Allison swiftly, confusion etched upon her face.

"In fact, she told us that he told her that he thought they should just be friends. If you'd been home she might have told you that."

Jo looked away from Allison and out the window and with a sigh blurted out. "He kissed me."

Allison blinked in surprise and uttered a confused, "Oh…" then a more understanding, "oh. When did this happen?"

"A couple of weeks ago," Jo said uncomfortable to be sharing but needing to tell someone. "The night Carter and Grant went," and then made a little motion with her hand.

Allison nodded understanding.

"I went to the sheriff's office to let Zane out of the jail cell and he….." She looked up at Allison finally and lowered her voice even further. "He knows, or he's close enough to figuring it out. I just need to stay away from him for a while until he gives up on this particular quest to pester me. Then when things settle down," she faltered, "I can figure out what to do next."

Allison reached her hand across the able and gripped her hand. "Jo, what are you thinking?"

Jo looked up, sadness in her eyes and quickly looked away and withdrew her hand.

"You're thinking about leaving," Allison said stunned at the possibility. "But Jo, we need you here, she argued."

"The rest of you have blended in with your new lives better than I have, and with Zane knowing about me it makes me a liability. He may suspect all of you, but he knows for sure about me because of those hallucinations. If I'm not around chances are he'll just let it go."

"What if he doesn't give up," Allison asked gently. "Maybe if you two were dating again…"

Jo shook her head and stared down at her salad, absently picking through the lettuce with her fork. "He's not interested in me, not that way." she said quietly. "He only kissed me to prove a point."

"Eureka just wouldn't be the same without you," Allison said sadly.

"It's not the same Eureka," Jo said wearily.

"Promise me one thing," Allison sad as Jo rose to leave. "That you'll come and talk to us, at least to Carter and me before you make up your mind one way or the other."

Jo nodded, unable to meet Allison's gaze. "I just don't know how much more of this I can take, she said miserably. "I have to go; I'm late for an appointment. Tell Carter not to have S.A.R.A.H. not to hold dinner for me tonight, ok? I'll be home late."

Allison nodded and Jo turned and walked swiftly towards the cafeteria doors passing Henry and Grace who were walking in. They waved their hands in greeting but she rushed past without speaking. They gave each other a concerned look and then spotting Allison they walked over to her table and joined her.

"Is something the matter with Jo," Grace asked.

Allison sighed and nodded.

"Do we need to be concerned," Henry asked in a low voice.

"She's thinking about leaving Eureka," she said quietly so as not to be overheard.

Grace looked shocked, asking "Why?" while Henry sat back and looked thoughtful.

"It's everything here, but I think it's mostly Zane," Allison admitted. "Carter and I have talked about it," she confessed, "how we'd feel if one of us couldn't remember the other. Carter just believes that if it's meant to happen it will, but I don't think Jo has that kind of faith."

"Vincent said that he cornered Jo again this morning at Café Diem," Grace said, "maybe he's trying."

"At this point," Allison said, "I don't know whether or not to help him, or to try to get Carter to find a reason to lock him up for a month."

"Maybe I should talk to her," Henry offered. "After all, we have the closest understanding to what she's going through."

Allison shook her head. "Let's just give her some space for the next few days, but we'll keep an eye on her. We're not going to lose her," she promised.

* * *

_Next Chapter- In the Spa!_


	3. Chapter 3

The Shangri-La Spa

Chapter 3

* * *

Unaware that she was the discussion of more than one lunch table in the cafeteria, Jo walked along the hallways towards the Shangri-La spa rubbing her right shoulder. She hadn't been able to manage time away from her schedule to enjoy the treatments that the spa offered in several months. Every time she scheduled something, a lab blew up or a scientist went missing. As she neared the spa doors the hallways was empty, but her mind was wandering in half a dozen different directions and she didn't notice. Needing an outlet for her frustrations she wondered if Andy would consider downloading a kick boxing program and sparring with her. She would have to remember to ask S.A.R.A.H. about it.

She was so occupied in her thoughts that she didn't notice that there wasn't anyone to greet her until she saw the typed note on the desk. Seeing her name she picked it up and read:

_Miss Lupo, we are sorry that there is no one available to greet you. Please change in the locker room and proceed to treatment room #4. Our massage therapist will be with you shortly. _

Jo shrugged, thinking nothing of it, and went into the women's locker room to change.

Zane watched through the security feeds that he'd tapped into, as Jo emerged from the locker room into the hallway and walked towards her assigned room. He sat in the room next door to #4 and listened as her footsteps softly echoed outside of his room until she entered hers. He waited a few minutes, giving her time to settled, and then he exited his room, and went next door. He knocked lightly and hearing her say, "Come in," he quickly entered the dimly lit room. Once inside he activated a small device that he'd installed onto the door handle and the light flashed from green to red indicating that it was working.

Turning to face the room he smiled in triumph. It had taken all of 30 minutes to send emails out rescheduling the appointments for everyone who was scheduled to be in the spa that afternoon. He'd created a duplicate mailbox so that the emails couldn't be traced, and then sent an email notice to the spa staff telling them that there would be a standard sweep for radiation of that area and that all personnel were to vacate the spa that afternoon. It had worked like a charm. 15 minutes prior to his arrival when he'd tapped into the security feed he noted that the place was deserted. He'd placed the security monitors in that area on a feedback loop so that they would never record that he and Jo were even there. He had her to himself for the next hour at least, longer he mused if she wouldn't cooperate. He supposed he could trigger some false bio-hazard readings if need be, but he decided that he'd hold that in reserve. For now he'd enabled a voice activated security lock on the door, with one minor modification. He'd added a pass phrase that he'd have to say before the lock would disengage. Jo wouldn't be able to leave until he was ready to let her go.

He stood with his back to the door as he watched her. Soft and relaxing music was playing that featured some sort of rainforest sounds. That and the low lighting combined to create a very tranquil mood. _For now_, he thought to himself.

She lay face down on the massage table her body covered with by a large white sheet. She'd let down her hair, and it shielded him from her view. _Perfect_, he thought as he grinned.

Still on the table, she rolled her right shoulder, "Can you please work on my shoulders," she asked thinking he was the massage therapist.

Zane's smile was mischievous as he walked around the outside of the room to the table that held the bottles of various massage oil. In the spirit of cooperation he thought he may as well help to make her feel relaxed. He silently rolled down the sheet to bare the top of her back, admiring the shape of her shoulders. He poured some oil into his hands, allowing the self-heating gel adjusting to his body temperature, and he stood next to the side of the table and began to knead the oil into her shoulders.

She sighed as he found a particularly large knot and began to apply more pressure until she began to relax under his hands. He kept up the massage, telling himself that he'd start talking to her in just a couple more minutes, but the longer he worked the harder it began to figure out just how he was going to bring up the fact that he was there. He kneaded the muscles at the base of her neck, and smoothed her hair out of his way, trying to focus on what he wanted to say. Deciding that it was best to just get it over with, he cleared his throat and said, "There's too much tension in your neck. You should really consider doing yoga to relieve your stress." He felt her muscles bunch beneath his hands but he kept massaging her shoulder blades as though nothing was the matter.

"Zane," she asked in disbelief as she lifted her head slightly, just enough to confirm that it was really him. "Are you crazy?"

"Me? I'm not the one with knots the size of walnuts in my back," he said as he gave her back a slight push back down onto the table. "If this is any indication your hamstrings are going to take all of my energy to loosen."

As he tried to rub her shoulders again she shrugged him off and swung off the opposite side of the table dragging the sheet with her and wrapping it around her body. "What are you doing," she asked incredulously.

"It's part of my parole- community service hours. Just 500 more and I'll be a free man. You wouldn't want me to have to go back to prison, would you," he asked in a mocking tone.

Jo didn't answer, just wrapped the sheet more tightly around her as she walked towards the door, muttering under her breath at what an idiot he was. She grabbed the door handle to open it, but the door wouldn't budge. She looked more closely and saw the small device on the handle that was blinking red. "You modified a Section Three security lock," she said aghast. She whirled back to face him, her eyes blazing. "Unlock it, now."

"Sorry Jo, no can do," he said smirking while he leaned against the table. "Its voice activated and there's nothing that you can do to get me to say it before I'm good and ready."

Furious, she started to step towards him.

"If you tell me that you have a gun on you somewhere under there I think that I'm going to have a new favorite fantasy," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Jo set her jaw and calculated whether or not she could get him in a chokehold without losing her grip on her sheet.

He watched her face smiling as though he knew exactly what she was thinking. "You know, I almost hope that you do decide to tackle me. I'm sure that you'd manage to pin me, but I'd enjoy it so much more than you would."

She hung her head as the anger swiftly left her. "Can't you just leave it alone," she asked wearily.

Zane got up from the table and closed the distance between them until he was just a foot away. "No," he said with an attempt at a smile, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. His gaze lingered on her mouth for a moment longer before he turned quickly on his heels and paced the length of the room.

Struggling to focus he ran his fingers through his hair and tried to figure out how he was going to approach this to get her to talk to him. He turned to face her and pointed to the walls. "All offices and hallways in GD are monitored in some way," he began, "and unless you engage sonic protocols you never know if someone may be listening or recording. Sonic protocols don't always work either because Mansfield is notified anytime anyone engages them. This room and the other treatment rooms aren't monitored. No cameras and no microphones."

Jo looked at him, confused. "So if I make you scream, no one will come running?"

"No," he said, "so when you give me some answers about what's going on, they'll stay here between us."

"It stays with us," she muttered sarcastically, "until you decide that you want to use it as blackmail."

"I'm not trying to blackmail you," he promised. "Fargo maybe, but not you."

She hesitated clearly uncomfortable and looked away.

He pressed the advantage that her silence offered and tried to logically build his case. "You trusted me before," he said quietly approaching her cautiously. "You believed me when no one else would. If you were wrong about me then you could have lost your job, so why can't you trust me again now?"

She stood against the door, unwilling to look at him and her dark hair hung down acted as a curtain hiding some of her face from his view. He took another step towards her and she looked up at him, her eyes filled with sadness as opposed to the fierceness that he was so used to. She looked small and vulnerable and he paused in his tracks.

"If I tell you this I could lose my freedom," she said quietly.

"Just yours," he asked.

"Don't ask me," she warned him.

"What can I do to get you to trust me," he asked her.

She said nothing, only looked away from him again.

"How about if I tell you what I already believe I know- hypothetically speaking," when she started to interrupt.

He hopped up onto the table and gestured for her to join him. She sat down warily but kept several feet between them.

"Three months ago you were normal, or everything else was. You barely spoke to me, only called me Donovan when you did, and you loathe me. Then one day I'm sitting in Carter's jail cell like normal and you come rushing in. You tell me that you think too much sometimes and that your answer is yes, and that you'll marry me. "

She looked down at her hands a slight blush spreading across her cheeks.

"I thought that maybe you'd been a victim of another experiment gone wrong, or that you'd found out about the betting pool."

That got her attention and she looked up. "What betting pool?"

"Vince keeps the occasional bet on things around Eureka," he hedged.

"Yeah, I know about that," she corrected. "I've had $50 on 100 to 1 odds of Allison and Carter ever getting together for like three years."

"Yeah," he asked with a surprised grin.

"They have odds on us," she asked softly.

"Yeah," he confirmed sheepishly. "Because of what happened when I first arrived in town."

At her blank look, he explained. "I asked you out after the whole chicken fiasco. You turned me down and we got into a bit of a heated fight, and someone offered odds on when we'd have our first date. That sort of thing is another reason why you should tell me what's going on. Everyone in town knows about that…with about 5 exceptions it seems."

She ignored him, and asked, "What are the odds?"

"1000 to 1," he said with a wry smile.

Jo just stared at him. "We really didn't like each other, did we," she asked sadly.

"When you talked about that whole marriage thing that day, I just thought that you were mocking me, and I didn't think anything more of it."

"A couple of days later you're still acting different. You're quieter and I catch you looking at me funny. Later when I crashed the jet cycle, you tell me that you believe that I didn't do it, and you help prove it. But you know when I really first realized that something was wrong," he said to her as he got off the table and moved to stand in front of her. "It was in the NLWP's lab right before the rage took over, and you said my name. You have never called me Zane. It's always Donovan, has been for two years." He smirked, "You were still a bad ass, the little zombie incident proved that that hadn't changed, but then I started to catch you looking at me more often," he said as he leaned in and placed his palms on the table on either side of where she sat, caging her in place. "You're looking at me like I'm the one whose acting differently and you're trying to figure out why. "

"You start talking to me, which in itself is a novel concept, and asking for my help, which you never do. It's like you already know what I'm capable of, and expect me to be able to do. Then just when I start to get used to that, you start to pull away again, making me wonder just what it was that I did this time. When we do finally talk we have one of the most bizarre conversations of my life which you end by throwing a ring at me." He reached under his shirt collar and fished out a chain from around his neck on which a small golden ring was looped.

Jo stared at it, and then looked away, but Zane touched her chin with his hand and lifted her face until she looked at him again. "I keep wanting to call my mother and ask if she still has hers, or if the same object from two different universes will collide and only one can exist at a time."

Jo blinked and swallowed hard.

"You are from a different universe," he told her matter-of-factly. "One in which we," he said as he gestured between them, "were dating. More than dating if I had given you this ring," he stated.

Her silence is the only confirmation that he needed.

"You're not here alone," he said, "but I'm not interested in them right now."

"I don't think that however you got here, that you came willingly," he said. "Not unless the proposal was really bad," he joked.

Jo shook her head and closed her eyes for a long minute.

"It's kind of nice to know that I don't screw it up everywhere," he joked halfheartedly.

"So -what," he prodded. "You were forced to jump to a different universe?"

Jo swallowed and looked Zane in the eye for a long moment before relenting. "Hypothetically," she began.

"If you want," he offered.

"If a group of people were to be transported back in time through a device that connected those two times, and then leave with an additional person returning to their own time on the very same day that they left, they would find that there were slight changes to the future that they knew."

Zane stayed quiet in the hopes that she'd continue.

"Like, if I was the deputy sheriff when I left and the Head of GD Security when I got back," she hedged.

"And you and I," he asked.

She licked her lips unconsciously and looked down at her hands which she gripped tightly together. "Hypothetically, we would have been dating for about two years. On the morning that we went back in time you proposed." She hesitated. "I wasn't expecting it and didn't answer right away. You got mad and stormed off. I was trying to call you when all of a sudden it was 1947."

"and the device that did it?" he asked.

"If such a device exists, it would be broken beyond repair," she said quietly.

"So if you went back to the past and then came forward again it's not a different universe, it's just differences within that universe.

"Something like that," she said. "Even if we wanted to, we can't change them back. So we either get used to our new hypothetical lives, or leave."

He frowned. "What do you mean, leave? Leave Eureka? Is that what happened to Grant?"

Jo shrugged. "Hypothetically, if you were to do a search there wouldn't be any mention of a Dr. Trevor Grant ever existing before Eureka."

"He's the one who came forward then." Zane said thoughtfully as he stared off into space, mentally connecting the dots.

"Look, you don't have to worry about any of this," she said trying to stop the conversation. "If I can't handle it then I'll leave and it won't be a big deal anymore. You just have to promise me that you'll leave the others out of this."

Zane turned back to face her, frowning once more. "What do you mean you're going to leave," he asked, leaning in and caging her with his arms.

"Look it's hard for me to be here," she said suddenly angry. "The way things are is the way that they're going to stay, and bottom line I have to get used to that."

"Things don't have to stay the same Jo," he told her. She looked up at him confused and he quickly leaned forward and covered her mouth with his.

* * *

_One more chapter to go!_


	4. Chapter 4

The Shangri-La Spa

Chapter 4

"_Look, you don't have to worry about any of this," she said trying to stop the conversation. "If I can't handle it then I'll leave and it won't be a big deal anymore. You just have to promise me that you'll leave the others out of this."_

_Zane turned back to face her, frowning once more. "What do you mean you're going to leave," he asked, leaning in and caging her with his arms. _

"_Look it's hard for me to be here," she said suddenly angry. "The way things are is the way that they're going to stay, and bottom line I have to get used to that."_

"_Things don't have to stay the same," he told her. She looked up at him confused and he quickly leaned in and covered her mouth with his. _

He cupped her face with his hand and gently nibbled on her lips, kissing her slowly as though he had all the time in the world, when in reality his heart was pumping so fast he wondered if the sound wasn't audible in the room. He felt her breath catch as he parted her lips with his tongue and lazily licked the inside of her mouth, silently daring her to kiss him back. As he leaned into her, his knees pressed against hers, and he had to remind himself to stay in control and not push her back onto the table. He tried to put every ounce of the feelings that he wasn't ready to say into the non-verbal communication between their lips in the hopes that it might convince her to give him a chance.

When he finally pulled away he moved back just far enough so that he could see her eyes so that he could assess her mood and figure out what she'd do next. He glanced over her slightly swollen and still parted lips as she stared back at him her large eyes unblinking. Her face was inscrutable as ever, the only outwardly sign she gave was her slightly heavy breathing. He wasn't entirely sure of what 'this' Jo would do. The other Jo would have surely stopped him with a swift knee to the groin, or another one of her devastating right hooks, but this Jo…she was an enigma, his favorite kind of puzzle. She licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak, but the quick movement of her tongue caught his eye and the words seemed to get caught in her throat as his gaze traveled down from her eyes to her lips and back up again. He reached out and lightly traced the edge of his thumb along her cheek, until he reached the edge of her chin, "Jo," he murmured softly.

She closed her eyes briefly at the sound of her name on his lips, and when she opened them again he was watching her with patient interest. Her eyes lowered to his lips and without another thought she leaned forward and pressing her lips against his, kissed him.

He wasted no time in kissing her back, hungrily this time as though they'd both been starving for the taste of each other. When she wrapped her arms around his neck he groaned into her mouth and put his arms around her waist, pulling her towards him and off the table. She swayed as she tried to find her footing, but he held her tightly against him and steadied her. Their tongues warred with each other as their passion ran wild. He gripped fistfuls of her loose flowing hair as he tilted her head back and trailed hot open mouthed kisses down the length of her throat, nuzzling into the curve of her neck and shoulder.

She finally tried to ease away, but he gripped her in his arms holding her still as he rested his forehead against hers. "Don't," he said quietly holding her tight as he tried to catch his breath.

"You're not him," she said softly unable to look at him as she spoke. "When I'm kissing you I'm thinking of him."

She pulled out of his embrace and this time he let her go. She walked to the door and leaned her back against it, trying to get some distance.

Zane chuckled humorlessly as he rubbed his hand over his face, leaning back against the table. "Well that's the first time that I've ever been the other guy in my own relationship before."

Jo looked up at his words. "We don't have a relationship."

"Don't we," he asked her. "I don't know about you but I don't kiss just anyone like that."

She shook her head, not answering. "You should just forget that we ever had this conversation and-"

He took a step towards her, his voice edging towards annoyance, "and what Jo? Just what is it that you expect me to do? Not think about you and what it's like to kiss you? I haven't been able to stop thinking about that for weeks. Or maybe you want me to start dating other people. That's worked out really well."

"What do you think that I want," Jo said, yelling now. "I want what I can't have, what doesn't even exist anymore!"

"I exist Jo," he said angry now. "I know that I don't have the multiple doctorates that he must have, and that I've been in trouble with the law before…," but he trailed off as she stared at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about," she asked him, quiet now.

"I'm talking about how different I must be from the guy that you knew," he said still annoyed. "The guy who never made any mistakes, never did anything wrong."

"You think that's what you were like," she asked her brows furrowed together.

"Wasn't I," he asked.

She wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging the sheet tighter to herself and looked down at the ground trying to find the words. "You were," and then looked up at him, "the same in many ways that you are now. You went to MIT when you were 15, but got kicked out of the Doctorate program before you could finish. You were arrested by the FBI for hacking into a Federal account and the DOD offered you probation in Eureka instead of jail time. You were a pain in the ass the first few days you were here, but then you seemed to mellow a little and you seemed to be at home here," she said ending on a sigh.

The room was silent as he tried to absorb the meaning of her words. "If I was like that then how did we end up together," he asked.

She shook her head slowly. "I'm not sure. When you first arrived in town you asked me out. We were just dating casually at first, but then we didn't want to see anyone else, and then I developed feelings for you, and you did for me. We fought all the time," she said on a sigh. "Broke up nearly a time or two after the arguing but…"

"I already know that I must have loved you," he interrupted, "There's no way that I would have given that ring to anyone on the planet unless I really loved them."

"I don't know," Jo said. "I think that you did, but I don't even know if we were right for each other."

"It feels pretty damn right when I kiss you."

"We never had a problem with chemistry," she said a deep blush spreading over her cheeks.

"Did you love me," he asked watching her face for her reaction.

She turned her head away and her hair fell over her shoulder like a curtain shielding her from his gaze, but it couldn't hide the fact that she had to lift her hand to wipe a small tear away from her eyes. Not trusting her voice, she nodded once.

Zane opened his mouth to argue and then closed it. Mouth set in a line, he said, "You're right. I'm not him." But he took another step towards her. "Have dinner with me."

She turned her head to look up at him. "Why?"

"Because the only thing that I can figure that's different from your time mine is the fact that we never dated. I asked you out for several months when I first came here. You shut me down every time. You were only interested in your career, and didn't have any time to date a felon on parole. Your words," he told her when she frowned.

"Why would you even want to have dinner with me?"

"I don't know. Maybe we'll hate it." But he took another step towards her, "but I'm guessing that we won't. Maybe I am different than he was. Did you ever stop to consider that the difference was you? Maybe I'm not like him because I didn't have you."

A small smile teased her lips at his words. "A time traveling line? Very corny."

"Hey it doesn't work on a lot girls…." he said with a grin, but it faded as he took another step towards her. "But I am serious."

"Dinner won't prove anything," she warned.

"Why does it have to prove anything?"

"Please, you're a scientist. You live and die by your ability to prove and disprove things."

"Ok, so maybe I want to prove that you wouldn't have such a bad time with me. That we could be good together. Why do you think I spent all this time chasing you around town and setting this up?"

Her eyes narrowed at his words. "Just how did you set this up," she queried.

Despite himself, he let out a laugh. When she frowned even further he shook his head at her. "God you're so hot when you're annoyed."

"Zane," she said in a low warning voice.

Still grinning he casually lifted a hand to her shoulder and played with a curl of her hair. "That's for me to know, you to speculate, and no one else to find out," he said as he tugged gently on the lock of her hair. "Bottom line, I'm not letting you out of here until you agree to have dinner with me." He smiled wide as he leaned closer to her, "I don't mind waiting here for a while," he told her as he gazed appreciatively down her sheet covered curves.

She put her hands up against his chest, stopping him from coming any closer. "Fine," she said with a curt nod, "I'll have dinner with you. Now will you please open the door," she asked.

He turned and leaned his shoulder against the wall next to the door, his arms crossed across his chest giving off an air of nonchalance, but his eyes were twinkling in triumph. He gave her what she thought of as his trademark smirk before he said aloud, "Ok Jo-jo, I'll go out with you, you don't have to beg."

"I'm not begging," she said baffled, then glared at him as the lock between then audibly clicked open as the color went from red to green.

"Café Diem at 8pm," he told her as her eyes narrowed into small slits, then he couldn't resist adding, "you might want to dress a bit more formally. While I love the whole toga look, you would probably give the customers a heart attack." He smiled as he opened the door and gestured for her to go through it first.

She brushed past him annoyed. "That's the last time I get a massage without my gun," she said over her shoulder.

He grabbed her by the arm, stopping her and swung her back around into his arms and kissed her again. He broke off with a grin at her dazed expression and laughed, "You really are irrisistable when you're annoyed at me."

She frowned at him, while she tried to collect herself. "I'm always annoyed with you," she said as she tried to back away. He pulled her back against him and kissed her again lightly on the lips, and then trailed a line of kisses towards her ear, fascinated with how quickly she would respond when he kissed her. His mind quickly began to calculate the number of experiments that he could do to test the growing number of theories that he had about her reactions to him.

As her eyes slowly opened, he grinned broadly at her. With one last quick nip at her lips, he released her and began backing up and heading towards the door. "If you're lucky I'll finish massaging your shoulders after dinner," he told her with a grin.

She tilted her head to the side and gave him an arched look. "If you're lucky I'll let you," she said and nearly smiled as she saw his eyes widen slightly, "but I'm still bringing my gun," she said warning him as she turned to walk towards the locker room.

As they turned around and walked away in their opposite directions, neither could see the smiles that crossed the face of the other, one hopeful, and the other triumphant, but both immediately began calculating how much time would need to pass until dinner that night.

* * *

Café Diem

Jo walked into Café Diem promptly at 8pm, punctuality being a habit that was ingrained in her through her military upbringing. Most people were rarely as punctual, and Zane was no better than most, so she walked into the café expecting to have to wait, and was surprised to find that he was already sitting at a table near the little alcove by the fireplace. He rose from his chair, a smile on his face at the sight of her, but before she could walk over, Vincent came over to greet her.

"Hi Jo," he said in a slightly harried tone of voice as he dropped food off at a nearby table, and then began piling empty dished from another. "It's a busy night tonight, so I'll have a table for you just in a minute unless you want to sit at the counter."

Jo shook her head at the café's chef. "Thanks Vince, but I'm meeting someone tonight."

Intrigued with the prospect of fresh gossip, Vincent looked up at her and stopped cleaning the nearby table. "Really," he drawled. "Who's the lucky guy?"

Zane came up behind Vince and speaking to Jo said, "Hi. I've got a table over here." He handed her a rose that he'd brought with him for the occasion, and leaning past Vincent handed it to her. He smiled as he saw the shocked expression on Vince's face.

Jo took the rose, and raised it to her nose to hide her own grin.

Zane gestured towards the table. "After you," he told Jo. She moved towards the table, still holding her rose, and trying not to laugh aloud as the expression on Vincent's face began to be mirrored in so many others in the café as people saw her and Zane together.

Reaching the table, Zane held out her chair for her, and she glanced up at him as she sat down, a thoughtful expression on her face. When he took his seat across from her they both realized that the Café had gotten silent. They turned in unison and found themselves the object of blatant stares from the townsfolk who were in the midst of their dinner. Vincent still stood rooted to the spot near the doorway where he had been talking to Jo, his mouth slightly open.

Zane gave a low chuckle and Jo turned back to look at him. He murmured softly to her, "Watch this," then sliding his hand across the table, he reached out and took one of her hands in his and gripped it, letting his thumb caress the back of her hand.

At the sight, the room burst into noise as Vincent ran back into his kitchen and nearly every person began speaking at once. Vincent reappeared behind the counter with a large black book and he was immediately mobbed by people as he began flipping open the pages looking for something.

Zane and Jo sat quietly at their table, Jo watching the reaction of the room, while Zane just kept watching Jo. Under the cover of noise from the room he asked her quietly, "What do you think they would do if I kissed you," he asked her with a smirking grin.

Jo turned back to look at him, trying and failing to suppress the smile on her lips. "Let's not try any more experiments just yet, shall we?"

Grinning again he asked her, "So what date do you suppose this technically is?"

Jo shook her head at the question. "We can't talk about that here," she said in a low voice.

"Everyone else is," he said with a gesture to the room.

"No, they're wondering how you got me to come here with you tonight," she said.

He grinned broadly at the memory. "If only they knew."

She tilted her head and with a raised eyebrow aimed a cool "oh really" look his way, but he just smiled broadly, "God, that is so hot."

Jo shook her head and looked down trying to conceal the small blush that was spreading across her cheeks, but Zane wasn't fooled.

A loud noise went up as Vincent found whatever he was looking for in his book capturing their attention. "Sheriff Carter had $10 on today," he told the room. Loud groans and some laughter went around.

Zane shook his head at the melee. "Life in a small town," he said conversationally, and then added. "Wait until they see what I'll do to get you to go on our second date."

Jo turned to look back at him, his blue eyes warm and trusting. She bit her lip as she considered for just a moment, and then reached her hand across the table and took his. "I'm looking forward to seeing that myself," she told him.

A slow smile spread across his face as he squeezed her hand, and they sat there in waiting to order dinner on their not-quite-first date.

_

* * *

_

_Whew. Sorry about the delay. The Holidays just interfere with my Eureka writing. I finished this one first because it was the closest. I had meant to finish it with Jo going into the locker room with a smile on her face, but that just didn't seem to be enough. Even I wanted more. So I hope you enjoyed the conclusion of the story._

_A few notes: I said that Zane's mom had the ring, that's because I'm assuming that in this universe anyway that Zane's grandmother would have given it to her daughter to hold for her son. I don't think Zane's been holding onto it waiting for the right girl. Sorry that I didn't explain that one better. _

_Thank you very much for all the reviews. I have three other stories that are unfinished and I hope to have some more posted on "You don't know Jo" and my version of the "Holiday episode" here over the next few days. Thanks for hanging with me on this one. _


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